(image: Kobia Media / Korea Bizwire)
SEOUL, May 2 (Korea Bizwire) — Rapes committed against children and youth are usually carried out by someone familiar to the victim.
This is according to report that analyzed the trends of sex crimes against children and youth released by the South Korean Ministry of Gender Equality and Family on Wednesday.
The report stated that 2,884 child rapists were convicted and forced to register their personal details online in 2016, a drop of 482 (16.7 percent) from 2015.
Forced sexual assault was the offense committed by the largest portion of those convicted of sex crimes at 1,761 individuals (61.1 percent).
Another 647 individuals (22.4 percent) were convicted of rape, 173 (6 percent) for soliciting sexual services, 153 (5.3 percent) for mediating prostitution, 72 (2.5 percent) for forcing prostitution, and 78 (2.7 percent) for producing obscene materials.
Rape offenses dropped by 11.7 percent from previous year and forced sexual assaults dropped by 17.3 percent.
Telecommunications mediums such as online messengers, social media websites and smartphone applications were frequently made use of to force and mediate sexual services from children and youth.
The ages of both the victims and accused were low. The mean ages for perpetrators and victims of sex crimes stood at 21.9 and 15.8, respectively.
Rape occurred most frequently within the home (46.6 percent) and forced sexual assault took place most commonly in public either on the road or during public transport (24.9 percent).
Rape often took place between 9 p.m. and 5 a.m. (49.1 percent), while forced sexual assault took place dominantly between noon and 11 p.m. (56.8 percent).
Most rape victims knew who the rapist was (63.3 percent) while forced sexual assault was typically carried out by total strangers (58.2 percent).
H. S. Seo (hsseo@koreabizwire.com)
